California Crab Fisheries to Close Early to Protect Whales

SAN FRANCISCO – California crab fisheries will close for the season in April when whales are feeding off the state’s coast as part of an effort to keep Dungeness crab fishery gear from killing protected whales.

The April 15 closure, three months before the crabbing season normally ends, is part of a settlement reached Tuesday by the Center for Biological Diversity and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The center sued the state agency in 2017, saying it was liable for a surge in entanglement of endangered whales and sea turtles because it oversees operation of the fishery off California’s coast.

Maine’s lobstermen say regulations set to take place this September to protect New England’s iconic right whales will severely impact their lobster harvest and cause them to lay off hundreds of workers. …

“You might say this is the old normal, because we’ve been so used to catastrophe,” said Noah Oppenheim, executive director at the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations. “Consumers who have been facing tough prices because of scarcity of California salmon are seeing a much more accessible product.” …